A transfer of funds can lag a business transaction, such as a purchase, by many days if a check or other negotiable instrument is used. This is because routing information must be read and processed, and the document must be transferred to a bank for funds to be exchanged. This time lag, or “float”, represents a substantial amount of time after transactions occur in which funds may accrue interest. It is therefore advantageous to companies or institutions accepting checks as a form of payment to process those checks as soon as possible after a transaction occurs to accrue this interest.
It can be advantageous to electronically read routing information on checks and also to scan checks or other documents representing a purchase in such a scenario. Modern scanning equipment, such as flatbed scanners, include a moveable scanning mechanism which passes along the length of the document. The scanning mechanism is guided at a constant speed along the length of the document by a linear rod. The document to be scanned is isolated from the scanning mechanism by a transparent panel. This is because if the document moves during the scanning process, the resulting scanned image can be skewed such that it becomes unreadable.
In check reading systems and other negotiable instrument scanners, various components, such as radial encoder or a magnetic character reader, contacts the document directly. In such systems, the friction occurring between the radial encoder and the document causes the document to move, and therefore causes skew when the document is scanned. Furthermore, radial encoders can constitute a large portion of the cost of an otherwise low-cost document reading system.
For these and other reasons, improvements are desirable.